Life Defining Events

The most significant experience that has had the greatest impact on my development is schooling.  While attending elementary school is widely associated with the acquisition of competencies such as reading, computation and writing, less frequently discussed is the development of competencies important in carrying out specific roles in future. Therefore, the schooling process had a significant impact in the development of competencies. The early school experience has had an impact on my life-long education achievement, knowledge and numeracy.  The basic skills provided the foundation for later subjects key to entry into higher education and training.  The learning of skills and knowledge is a direct effect of early classroom teaching. Additionally, feelings and cognitions are also influenced by the early school. Such indirect effects of school are more elusive because they are mediated a person’s motivation to learn or avoid learning, the attributions the person creates for explaining success and failure and self-conception as a learner.

Important circumstance surrounding the experience and what did you learn about yourself

There are various important circumstances surrounding the experience that have shaped my life. The most important is the process of problem-solving.  School is attributed to numerous ingenious experiments involving problem-solving. As learners, children are provided with various problem-solving tasks in different lessons. Mathematics, for example, promoted my mastery of problem-solving and promoted the maintenance of positive orientation to tasks.   As a result, the experiences have enabled me to relate knowledge learned to new tasks. It has also enabled me to think in terms of problem-solving. This has made it easier to make inferences and draw conclusions (Jena & Kumar, 2014). Knowledge obtained from early school experiences has affected learner’s representation of a problem which influences the ease through which I solve problems. As a result, I have gradually developed highly organized knowledge structures related to problem representations resulting in the ability to access and use appropriate knowledge with ease. These strategies can be adjusted to meet new needs in everyday circumstances.

School learning often involves participation and working in groups. Often, teams were organized to help in problem-solving. Each member of the group made a contribution in terms of talents, skills, education and experience. Each activity required commitment and effort of each individual to fulfill group responsibilities.  This required each member to fulfill his or her own obligations for the group to succeed. Similar to a chain, a group is only as strong as its weakest member. While working in class groups, I recognized that groups achieved higher levels of performance compared to individuals due to combined energies and talents of the constituents. Te resulting collaboration provided the avenue for creativity and motivation often absent in individual projects.

Each learner developed a sense of belonging to the group. Different views and diversity energized the process, helping address stalemates and blocks. Groups create space for learning and identification of one’s abilities.  Thirdly, school helped me in developing communication for different contexts and understanding the importance of effective communication.

One memorable experience in my early school life is the role I played as the leader of an association.  As the president of the association, I became the primary student contact for the association as well as the spokesperson of the group. Students regularly interacted with institution officials through the platform. I acted as the liaison between the student association and the advisor association members on issues of interest.  The duties for this position were tailored as the student association deemed necessary. The responsibilities of the president included but not limited to supervising all student association meetings, overseeing event planning and maintaining current updates of the association. Other roles included completing association purchase requests, maintaining members’ personal details, submitting necessary paperwork for student association renewal and annual reports for student organization activities. Keeping close contact with administration, attending public events, budgeting, conducting the Board Meetings and representing students outside community also formed part of my core responsibilities. These roles require an individual to possess highly-developed leadership skills in order to steer the association towards its goals and missions. 

There are various things that I learnt about myself.

First, I learnt of my abilities to lead others without putting much effort.  Throughout my early school experience, I often played the role of group leader as well as other leadership positions. Since then, I have nurtured my leadership abilities by consistently making sound decisions and inspiring others to perform well. I recognized my ability to take swift and decisive actions even in difficult situations, set and achieve challenging goals, take calculated risks, outperform their competition and persevere in the face of failure.  My leadership abilities come from having self-confidence, strong communication skills, the ability to manage others and a willingness to embrace change (Finkelman, 2017). I easily establish a clear vision and share the vision with others in order for them to follow willingly while providing them with tools to realize the vision. In the various leadership positions taken in school, I received recognition for coordinating and balancing conflicting interests of different participants. I would step up in times of crisis and thinks creatively in that situation.

I learnt of my strengths in the area of communication. Good communication skills are critical for learners. I possess outstanding communication skills that enable me to develop relationships.  This involves actively listening to others. From the knowledge attained in class, I realized that good communication is the heart of every relationship and practice. I have found it important to establish effective communication practices so as to have strong relationships.

The ability to effectively lead the group was based on a number of key skills. Perhaps the most important skill I utilized was the ability to think strategically. This involved having a vision of where the group needed to be and influencing others to achieve that vision. The position also required general interpersonal skills. Dealing with different students with diverse points of view requires a set of interpersonal skills (Northouse, 2015). These skills are important in leading people. Communication skills formed part of the interpersonal skills critical to my role as a president.  Communication acts as a motivator in practice. Many leaders agree that keeping people in the loop makes them feel important while followers appreciate good communication relationships. As a result, I led groups that performed exceptionally well. 

I learnt that I am task oriented. I have a strong orientation for getting the job done within the required time. I have the ability to set out an easy flow of work schedules under strict requirements and deadlines. As a result, I am good at following up on tasks to assess the progress. I recognize my ability to successfully carry put tasks in an environment where responsibilities are more easily predictable and defined. Recognizing my strengths and weaknesses have been important in developing most of the skills I possess today.

How I learnt from these experiences and what roles others played in this learning process

Teachers played a significant role in the learning process.  The role of teachers is clearly more that than just planning and executing lesson plans. It also includes motivating students to identify their strengths and acting as role models.  Development of competencies is determined by the manner in which teachers provide direction, motivate people and implement plans. It is a sum of total pattern of implicit and explicit actions carried out by the learner and the teacher. The style of teaching used by teachers has a considerable impact on the identification and development of skills and competencies.

At the beginning, I encountered challenges in expressing myself.  My language teacher provided an opportunity to improve my communication. The awareness of such problems in communication was the first step toward solving it. The knowledge gained in class helped me realize the critical functions of Communication in any context. Effective communication helps get things done and builds relationships of trust and commitment.

Other students also played a huge role in the learning process.  To effectively achieve the group goals, I had to ensure that the team functions as a single unit. Group members had to work together towards the common goal and support each other in their tasks. Communication skill helped influence and inspire commitment of individuals so as to meet group goals and objectives (McCleskey, 2014). There were constant Conflicts that arose from personal and role issues. However, with effective communication, it was possible to resolve conflicts before they could become toxic.  Hence, students provided meaningful challenges that allowed me to direct them towards achieving shared undertakings and goals. They depended on me to ensure that our group performed the best. Additionally, they provided the motivation needed to hone my skills. Students have different personalities. My input was necessary for tasks to be completed in an urgent manner.

Implications of the experiences on the kind of leader you I am.

I am a transformational leader. The influence of transformational leadership on followers is commonly explained as stemming from followers empowerment and development which increase their motivation and ability.  Followers’ empowerment is often presented as one of the significant features that tell apart such leadership from other forms of leadership. Most forms of leadership do not seek to empower the followers but merely to influence their behavior. Today’s leader is required to have the capacity to make the most out of every situation. Today’s leaders need to be courageous and not afraid of challenging the status quo or pushing the boundaries to make things better (Roueche et al., 2014). Leaders with these qualities recognize that enabling the full potential of others is one step to getting the most out of people.  Followers’ success, the decisions they make, the lens they see through and how they navigate their roles are all heavily influenced by the types of leaders they have. The experience will enable me to ensure that followers understand their tasks and their roles. I want to be the particular form of a lead that influences others to action.

Stress Management and Life Balance

How I react and cope in stressful situations?

Stress is an unavoidable. However, it is not always a bad thing.  If stress is constant over time, it can be detrimental to health. Hence, stress management is critical and helps me jungle through many things going on in my life.  My way of dealing with stress involves establishing a correct balance between good stress and bad stress. I require good stress to stay productive and motivated. I react to situations rather than stress. In this way, I handle situations to avoid negative impacts. I have realized that I work better under pressure and actually achieve much in a challenging environment. By prioritizing my responsibility, I get a clear idea of what I should complete or achieve first and when I should accomplish the task or goal. This has enabled me to have a clear idea of how to effectively manage stress.

Where stress is caused by people around me, I tend to discuss options that will help in handling the situation better.  I can cope with a reasonable level of stress (Sharma & Rush, 2014). When I am under pressure of a deadline, I work effectively and get the job done within no time. I find it exhilarating to be in an environment where the pressure is on.  I have done most of the best work under stressful conditions and tight deadlines.  I handle stress fairly easily and stay calm under pressure. I don’t attempt to get rid of stress, rather manage it or eliminate unnecessary stress.

Kinds of stressors and how I manage them and specific practices that will help in managing these sources of stress

There are various stressors that I have encountered in my life.  The first one is the perceived lack of time to effectively complete a task. This kind of stressor is particularly common in learning institutions when tests are quickly approaching.  I have to cover everything I have learnt in a time that I perceive to be short than is necessary.  Today, the type of stress is common when undertaking seemingly urgent tasks. I overcome this form of stress by ensuring that I am realistic about the deadlines that I set for myself. While it is critical to set deadlines due to the level of certainty that comes with it, unrealistic deadlines often result to stress.  It’s is important to work under deadlines, but too tight deadlines should be exception rather than the norm.

The second source of stress results from working on too many things concurrently. The ability to multitask is an advantage to many people. However, working on too many tasks at the same time can be stressful.  When too many tasks are forced upon me, I develop stress and resentment which often result in substantially poor results. I overcome this form of stress by simply setting priorities Setting priorities allows me to be aware of all points of view.  The third source of stress arises from a lack of clarity (Tetrick &Winslow, 2015). I like to know what is expected of me in order to develop a level of certainty.  I overcome this by being clear of my requirements. I not only a better communicator, but I request others to communicate more clearly. Knowing what a task entails before engaging in it is a necessity for me. In future, I plan to adopt other techniques that have been proven to be effective in stress management. These include yoga.

Strengthening my physical, psychological, and social resiliency

Physical

Physical resilience is achieved through exercises and taking healthy diets. I ensure that I take a break from the strenuous activity and exercise to get my blood moving. This releases endorphins and improves my mood almost instantaneously. Eating right food in the right amount and avoiding caffeine helps in sustaining energy. The third strategy is by ensuring that I ensure that I sleep enough the body and brain to get out of the tiresomeness. Getting adequate sleep helps in relaxing and is good way to reduce stress. 

Psychological

The psychological resiliency begins with identifying the sources of stress in my life. It is easy to identify stressors. However, pinpointing the sources of stress can be complicated as it is easy to overlook own thoughts, behaviors and feelings.

Social

Engaging with friends and family is critical in stress management. Allocating time for friends and family or other social activities is critical to stress management.

Implications for my Leadership Performance and Style

My personality allows me to work best with others.  Finely-honed communication skills enabled the quick and effective building of rapport effectively as well as the development of good, strong relationships with others. As a leaders working with others on a one-to-one and group basis, the range of skills was important to deal with a wide range of situations. I could say that being a better communicator helped in my early leadership practices. However, I need to develop strategies to leverage my weaknesses. My weakness comes from making quick decisions. This can be viewed as a weakness because it is viewed as having an uncompromising approach. Solving critical problems requires input from different perspectives in order to come up with the optimal decision. Secondly, I like things done to perfection. Therefore, I tend to get disappointed when things are not done right.  Understanding that people are unique in how they carry out tasks is an important starting point.

My distinctive leadership competencies

I have learnt of my abilities to solve problems. I have a higher-order cognitive skill that is evident when I face obstacles.  This comes in handy when proceeding from a particular state to achieve a desired goal. As a result, I can assess situations quickly and determine the best course of action. Like a talent, I have made significant efforts to hone the skill and put it into practice to make it work properly.  I am clear and concise at all times. I can easily achieve a vision that needs to be accomplished. I have a tendency to give others the opportunity to digest their goals and determine whether or not they have the ability to support their cause. Often, people do not know what they want or how to achieve what they want. In such a situation, people they tend to gravitate towards individuals who appear to have a clear picture. This makes it easy to lead.

I perform best in challenging situations, under pressure and actually achieve much in a challenging environment. By prioritizing my responsibility, I get a clear idea of what I should complete or achieve first and when I should accomplish the task or goal. As a follower, I am a very strong group contributor. As a leader, I perform best when there is need to empower, develop or motivate followers.  In addition to my leadership competencies, I recognize the importance of followers’ inputs and believe decision making through consensus. This is one of the strengths I bring as a leader.  My leadership role model is Mark Zuckerberg because he has achieved much in the field that few people had dared to delve.  I can strengthen my performance and leadership styles by constantly assessing myself and improving on the weak areas.

References

Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Roueche, P.E., Baker III, G.A. and Rose, R.R., 2014. Shared vision: Transformational leadership in American community colleges. Rowman & Littlefield.

McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.

Tetrick, L.E. and Winslow, C.J., 2015. Stress management interventions and health promotion. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav., 2(1), pp.583-603.

Sharma, M. and Rush, S.E., 2014. Mindfulness-based stress reduction as a stress management intervention for healthy individuals: a systematic review. Journal of evidence-based complementary & alternative medicine, 19(4), pp.271-286.

Finkelman, A., 2017. Professional concepts: Competencies for quality leadership. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Jena, S. and Kumar Sahoo, C., 2014. Improving managerial performance: a study on entrepreneurial and leadership competencies. Industrial and Commercial Training, 46(3), pp.143-149.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in legitimate custom writing services Texas. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from research paper writing service Florida services.